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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 3, 2019 13:24:02 GMT -5
Is it weird if I'm going to give a hard pass on P5: Royal? Is it weirder if I'm more interested in Tales of Arise than P5: Royal? Is it weirderer if Tales of Arise is, for me, the most interesting upcoming JRPG? yes Oh okay. Good.
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Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
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Post by Derman on Nov 3, 2019 14:40:19 GMT -5
To give a more serious answer.... I'm not that interested in P5:R either, but I guess that's mostly because I don't own a PS4. I'm a bit curious about how they'll implement the extra content into the already pretty tight in-game calendar, (nevermind... read some spoilers, and now my curiosity is satisfied) but other than that I don't see many reasons for me to actually play that version instead. Tales of Arise though? I sometimes forget it even exists. I can't say I'm not interested, but since we don't have much information (unless I've missed something), I have no clue how it'll turn out and if I should be hopeful or not. They are using Unreal engine, which could be a good or a bad thing. I'm leaning towards good.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Nov 4, 2019 14:55:54 GMT -5
I didn't know either were even coming out. I definitely won't be getting either.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 4, 2019 20:12:43 GMT -5
Define "coming out". P5:Royal launched in Japan uh... last week? (I already forgot). Tales of Arise is still TBD.
Updated to Windows 10 today because service for 7 will be ceasing. Sure am glad I (somehow?) got the upgrade for free, because paying 100+ bucks for something that is functionally identical would have sucked massively. Now I can invest that money into something much, MUCH more worthy, like a first edition of Kafka on the Shore*.
*the joke being that I will never ever actually READ it, because nobody actually READS first editions. Yes I did just explain the joke. I don't care.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Nov 4, 2019 22:52:50 GMT -5
I define "coming out" as "existing". I've never heard of either, let alone their release dates.
I'm fine with Windows 10, but I did override the start menu with a classic modded one. I have no time or interest in the touch screen-esque design.
I don't use my Windows computer for anything other than Civ and the Sims, though. I'm ok with that. I like Macs for programming and everything else, but like hell if I'm paying for a gaming rig from Apple. That's just dumb.
For anyone who has ever argued that cats don't care about you, I went to Denver for the weekend, and my cat has been glued to me ever since coming back. I've had other cats less overtly affectionate, but they were clingy, too.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 6, 2019 15:54:19 GMT -5
It all depends on the cat. Some cats couldn't give a flying sh*t whether you exist or not. I've also seen some cats that are friendlier than dogs.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Nov 9, 2019 9:32:09 GMT -5
I've devolved into my annual "why do I live in New York" existential crisis early this year! Thanks to a polar vortex hitting the East Coast, it's 35 degrees and windy.
I hate wind. I hate it very, very, very much.
I'm also upset that I thought I would go hang out in the coffee shop next door like I always do on weekend mornings, but it was drafty in there. Routine ruined! And now I'm back to hanging out in my apartment like a slob.
At least other places get some pretty snow as payback for being cold. Snow gets trampled into dirty mush within an hour here, and more often than not, we just hover over barely freezing so it just rains in the cold for slushy sadness instead of actually snowing.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Nov 9, 2019 11:53:18 GMT -5
From my high school's newsletter (no, I don't know what possessed me to read it...)
I'm very baffled by demand for boarding options for middle schoolers. I mean, I guess you could say the same for high school, but middle school just feels young? I hope the inquiries are coming from behalf of the kids, and not the parents... although, I dunno. I can definitely get a middle schooler saying they want to attend a private school over public because they don't like their options, but saying you want to go to a boarding school in particular feels a little like it could be driven by adolescent petulance?
It's not even like it's a situation of where boarding is needed because there are no other day school options in the area, since Connecticut is flush with private day schools (as are Massachusetts... and New Hampshire... and New Jersey... and New York... let's be real, prep schools are practically defined by New England).
Although I don't know why I feel so weird about it, because I boarded for two years in high school. I did not like the high schools I attended, but I liked the experience of boarding a lot. I think it was a net positive experience for me. I guess it just feels weird for me thinking from the parent perspective.
Also, 65% of alumnae (yes, alumnae, motherf**kers, we're going to do the declensions right) have donated to the school. I've never donated. I don't want to. I probably never will. This isn't driven by any antipathy, but just... it's money; I don't want to spend any.
I could kinda get behind donating if it went towards something really specific, like financial aid, but just donating into the faceless machine, meh.
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Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
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Post by Derman on Nov 10, 2019 13:12:21 GMT -5
I had to look up what boarding school's here, because I couldn't think of any examples. Apparently there is one actual boarding school for 7th-9th grades, but other than that they are for ages above, and I've never heard of most of them. And while the concept of a "boarding school" sounds a bit alien to me, there's this thing that directly translates to "folk high school" that's relatively popular in conservative laestadians that few of my siblings have attended. It's basically a 10th grade/high-school prep for laestadians after 9th grade. By description it is basically a boarding school, but I never thought of it as such until now.
I can't really see 7th graders wanting to attend a boarding school (or at least a situation where it makes sense, they might want even when they really shouldn't). Although to be honest, here almost nobody attends private schools from grades 1 to 9, so maybe the culture is a bit different. To me, boarding schools for anyone under 15 sounds like something parents put their children into, rather than the children wanting to attend them themselves.
Also, on the weather: For us that phase went through in like three days, luckily. The temperature was consistently below freezing for a while before it started snowing, so we had only a short period of slushy sadness. It's definitely the worst part of early winter.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 11, 2019 16:16:52 GMT -5
Boarding schools are like anything else: there's no universal "correct" solution for children and their education. I think for some students it would go a long way in establishing some form of independence: a chance to finally be out from under their parent's gazes and be more their own people. For others, particularly at that age, I can envision it as an entirely destructive circumstance.
However, in terms of people actively seeking out boarding schools, I suspect there's a broader frustration with public education. While I agree 100% that public education is not providing kids with the best tools to face the real world, I do wonder how much of this is bandwagonning. To draw a comparison, Valve has made posts that cheating in CS:GO is not as rampant as the forums would have you believe, and that a good experience is dependent upon trusting that the system -is- working. Obviously the system is flawed, else people would not be in the forums complaining. However there is some truth to what they say: I've seen people throw a game three rounds in because they're convinced that someone else is cheating. Turns out, when viewing the replay, they just got really lucky in those early rounds. If you go into the game with the assumption that there's likely a cheater, you're biasing yourself to a bad experience the moment anyone does anything above average.
So getting back to public education, yes, I think it's pretty clear that there's a problem with public education. However, that doesn't make every alternative better. Not all private/charter schools are equal: there are many who are happy to take your money while providing your child with an inferior education. And of course, it's your child getting screwed for your peace-of-mind. It's fine to criticise public education -- God knows it has it coming -- but to become so toxic that you regard it with scorn blinds you just as badly as blindly accepting it.
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Post by Youngster Joey on Nov 12, 2019 2:46:55 GMT -5
I think the biggest predictor of school success ultimately comes down to the parents, really, for a couple of reasons:
1) Politically unpopular to say this, but there is a correlation between wealth and IQ. This doesn't mean poor people are dumb, but it does mean that, all else being equal, intelligent people are probably more likely to be wealthy. And smart parents have smart kids; intelligence is highly heritable.
2) Parents who have money more generally have money to pour into their school, whether that's through paying exorbitant tuition, living in an area with high property taxes that can support a nice school system, or raising lots of money in their local PTA.
3) Parents who care about their children's education will generally go out of their way to put them in "good" schools with likeminded parents, whether that's moving to another town for the public school or placing their kid in a private school.
4) Parents who are paying for their children's education generally care that their children are doing well in school, since, well, it'd be an awful waste of money otherwise.
Ergo, are good schools good? Or do they have good students because they have parents who care and have means?
In sad news, my office is having a science fair-like exhibit where each team is putting together a trifold poster explaining what the team does. WHY DID I SIGN UP FOR THIS
I mean, yes, I know why I signed up for it--there are 4 of us in the New York office and I knew probably no one would end up signing up if I didn't, but WHY. Ugh. I hated art projects like this in school. Why would I voluntarily subject myself to one??
There are 4 types of people in this world when it comes to design and aesthetics: 1) People who are naturally good at it and come up with beautiful things effortlessly 2) People who are not good at design/aesthetics and have no idea. They blissfully create hideous things effortlessly 3) People who are not good at design/aesthetics, know it, and don't give a shit. They knowingly create hideous things, putting in zero effort because effort ain't gonna help 'em anyway. 4)People who are not good at design/aesthetics, know it, and do give a shit. They will create an OK thing, but only after hours of agonizing and slaving.
I am in camp 4. My seatmate is in camp 2 and sent me a suggested poster. Yeah, no, no one is going to stop and read a complicated, busy org chart in tiny font. So here I am, 2:46 AM.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 14, 2019 0:11:20 GMT -5
I think 'design' and 'art' are two different things. 'Design' is like the structure, 'art' is the execution. Just because somebody can draw well doesn't necessarily mean they can compose a scene. Likewise, just because someone can craft an appealing composition doesn't mean that they possess the capacity to execute on that. I'm okay-ish at design. C grade material. But when it comes to art? F-----------------------------------(-).
Thank god I have a friend who has been using photoshop for over a decade. So many college projects saved because he can turn my MS-paint doodles into something presentable. I'd post an example, but I didn't realise (read: spend two seconds thinking about) that 'My Pictures' was not included in My Documents when backing things up for the Windows 10 purge. Oh well: nothing of value was lost.
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Derman
Oracle Knight
I still don't have a knife tag on my golden birth knife
Posts: 194
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Post by Derman on Nov 14, 2019 11:20:24 GMT -5
I can do a basic powerpoint presentation that doesn't look like garbage by using templates and following instructions, but if I had to design and execute something more complicated it wouldn't end well. I'd say I'm comfortably a number 3) on your list. It's not like I'm absolute garbage at either, but even if I were to combine all my skills on both of them, I wouldn't reach the level of someone who's good at one of them. Luckily, it's been a while since I've had to do one of those kinds of things.
I've been sick for a couple of days, so I've spent my time sleeping and watching Silicon Valley (while doing the minimum to keep up with studies/work). It's been a surprisingly entertaining show. I've held off giving it a try because I wasn't really interested in that type of stuff (I imagined something more like Mr Robot, or Social Network, which I haven't seen but I have some idea what it's like) but once I found out it's basically pure comedy I decided to give it a shot. Decent plot with great jokes, episodes that don't drag on for too long, and no laugh track!
Also been messing around with Rust... it's a weird language, not sure if I like it or not. Some of it's core concepts take some time to understand, and even more time to get used to.
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 15, 2019 16:39:31 GMT -5
So, much like how re-reading Wind-Up Bird was a curious experience, re-reading Kafka on the Shore has been very similar. I'm half-way through, and much like with Wind-Up Bird, there are a lot of mysteries I don't understand, but the book's central theme is so obvious that I don't know how I missed it the first time. It's very clearly about violence and the impact it has had on people through three generations: Nakata and World War 2, Ms. Seiki and the student riots, Kafka and domestic violence. I have some further soppositions, but as I'm still only half-way through, I'll hold off.
What also intrigues me is how I knew pretty much from the start that this would not hold the same place in my heart as Wind-Up Bird or Commendatore. I enjoy it very much, and I stand by it being one of Murakami's best works (and probably my third or fourth favourite, depending on how a Norwegian Wood re-read goes). However, I still know without a doubt that it will not have that same connection. It's funny how sometimes the gap between things you enjoy can be as wide as the gap between things you don't. To me the gap between Wind-Up Bird and Kafka is as clear as the gap between SMT4 and Apocalypse, albeit on a smaller scale. To put it another way, if the distance between the latter is 3000 meters, then the former is 3000 centimeters: and I do mean '3000 centimeters', NOT '3 meters'.
Does that make sense, or am I just insane?
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Post by Friendly Person :) on Nov 16, 2019 17:40:54 GMT -5
Ah yes. I now know how Oregairu will end, and it is acceptable. Now it's time to wait for season 3...
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